Plagiarism is the act of presenting, as your own, the opinion, idea or work of someone else. In fact, the word ‘plagiarism’ is derived from the Latin word for ‘kidnapper’. In other words, to plagiarise is to literally steal something that belongs to someone else.
Correctly citing any sources that you use in your work is important, because it allows you to:
- Avoid breaking copyright law
- Avoid committing plagiarism
- Provide credible evidence to support your work, which strengthens your argument and allows your readers to check your sources.
Examples of plagiarism include:
- Quoting, summarising and paraphrasing the work or opinion of someone else without giving them credit or acknowledging them as the owner of the original idea. There is no ‘number’ of words that is allowable before it is considered plagiarism. The rule ‘better safe than sorry’ is pertinent here; if you are in doubt, supply a reference. Including a source provides evidence for your argument, and usually requires you to expand or contextualise the source. Doing this not only adds credibility to your words, but also gives you an opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge of the topic, which may boost your marks.
- Paraphrasing another person’s work. For example, changing the wording of the original idea or work, but keeping the meaning of the original and presenting it as your own without giving credit to the owner.
- Not using quotation marks to demonstrate where you have directly used the work of someone else.